Junior Library Guild Selection * New York General public Library’s Best Books for Teens * Goodreads Choice Awards non-fiction Finalist * Chicago General public Library’s Best of the greatest Books for Teenagers: Nonfiction * 2018 Tx Topaz Nonfiction List * YALSA’s 2018 Quick Picks List * Lender Street’s 2018 Best Books of the Year

“This gut-wrenching, poetic memoir reminds us that no life story could be reduced to the word ‘refugee.” -New York Instances Book Review

“A critical piece of literature, adding to the about How Dare sunlight Rise: Memoirs of a War Child larger refugee narrative in a manner that is complex and nuanced.” -School Library Journal (starred review)

This profoundly moving memoir is the remarkable and inspiring true story of Sandra Uwiringiyimana, a girl in the Democratic Republic from the Congo who tells the tale of how she survived a massacre, immigrated to America, and overcame her trauma through art and activism.

Sandra was just ten years aged when she found out herself having a weapon pointed in her head. She had watched as rebels gunned down her mother and six-year-old sister inside a refugee camp. Amazingly, the rebel didn’t draw the trigger, and Sandra escaped.

Thus began a new life for her and her surviving family. With no house and no money, they struggled to remain alive. Eventually, through a US refugee system, they transferred to America, only to face just one more ethnic disconnect. Sandra may have crossed an ocean, but there is now a very much wider divide she had to conquer. And it started with middle college in NY.

In this memoir, Sandra tells the story of her success, of locating her place in a new country, of her expect the future, and how she found a way to give tone of voice to her people.